Hexcel: new factory in France for A350 ramp-up.

Hexcel strengthens its presence in the region Rhône-Alpes and has announced the construction of a plant for carbon fiber manufacturing in Roussillon (Isère) with an investment of 250 million euros.

The implementation of this new site fits into the strategy of international expansion of Hexcel, wishing to get closer to Airbus, specially for the A350 XWB ramp up.

The construction work will start in September 2015.

The factory, dedicated to the production of polyacrylonitrile (raw material of carbon fiber), will be fully operational in 2018 with 120 new direct jobs and 250 indirect.

Moreover, Thierry Merlot, vice-president of Hexcel announced that the company will invest additional 22 million euros in France on its existing sites to increase the production capacity at Avenières-site and at Dagneux-site, creating 100 new jobs by 2018.

To date, Hexcel employs 1000 people in its 4 french sites located at Dagneux, Les Avenières, Nantes and Toulouse.

All pictures. Source: Linder Fotografie

Based on the article “Hexcel lance son site de Roussillon” published in Les Echos

A350 in Le Bourget. New orders and conversions to bigger -1000 expected. No Emirates decision yet.

The A350 will be next week at Paris Airshow both in static display (an aircraft of Qatar Airways) and in fly display everyday during the show.

Source: Lindner Fotografie

The 7 minutes flight-demo will be done by Airbus´ pilots with the carbon-black livery MSN2 prototype.

 Source: Lindner Fotografie

In parallel, many orders will be announced. Since last November/2014 the A350 orderbook is at 780 unchanged.

During the Airshow conversions of current A350-900 customers will be announced, to bigger A350-1000.

Source: Lindner Fotografie

Some news regarding A350-800 orders (16 remaining) could be announced as well, but on the other hand, Emirates will not announce yet the decision regarding the largest order is playing out in the aerospace industry.

Emirates last year canceled an order for 70 Airbus A350 widebodies after considering the 787-10 as a possible fleet replacement.

Since then, Emirates is in the market for between 70 and 100 wide-body planes to replace its aging fleet and take on new, mid-range routes over the coming years.

Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airlines told Leeham News recently that “if anything, the 787-10 is not coming up with the thrust requirements that we need. We’re working with Boeing on that, whereas the A350-900 has got bags of thrust.”

Emirates might revive the Airbus deal if Boeing can’t respond to Clark’s concerns over hot-weather performance of the 787-10.

“While impressed with the operating economics of the 787-10 . . . Clark is concerned that Dubai’s harsh operating environment will prevent the aircraft from being able to carry sufficient payload on critical missions,” Flightglobal reported.

Clark said he hopes to make a decision on which plane to order by the end of the year, probably around November at the Dubai Air Show.

Based on the article “Emirates Airline dangling 100-airplane order in front of Boeing, Airbus” published in The Post and Courier

A350 pilots first surprise; quiet, dark cockpit design. Each color has its meaning.

Aviation Week & Space Technology had the opportunity to fly the A350. In the report published it was highlighted that several differences are apparent, between the new Airbus and Boeing widebody twins and between the A350 and earlier A330.

“Strapping in, I was impressed with the quiet, dark cockpit design.”

If something does not require attention, it is not shown and not heard.

Display color conventions are another strong point:

“Pull on a knob and you can select the data, shown in cyan. Push the knob and you have given authority to the computer, shown in magenta. Cyan also denotes a pilot action to be completed. Green signifies normal, active, completed action.”

The A350 has the largest displays in an Airbus: 6 Thales 15-in. landscape flat panels.

Source: Alexander Hassestein

Outermost are the onboard information displays:

·In front of each pilot is the primary flight and navigation display (PFD/ND).

·The top center screen is the electronic centralized aircraft monitor (ECAM) with engine instruments, system display, mailbox and crew-alerting annunciations.

·The bottom center screen presents twin multifunction displays, used for flight planning via a point-and-click interface.

Based on the article “Balanced Performer” published in Aviation Week.

A350 will attend Oshkosh 2015 in July.

An Airbus A350 flight test aircraft will demonstrate its flying capabilities and be open for public tours at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015, scheduled 20-26/July at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh.

The Airbus A350 XWB will arrive “The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration” on the opening day with an aerial 7min. demonstration during the afternoon air show.

After public tours of the aircraft on Tuesday 21/July at AirVenture’s Boeing Plaza, the A350 XWB will perform another aerial demonstration during the air show on Wednesday 22/July, prior to its departure at around 15:00h towards Toulouse, with a stop for refueling at General Mitchell International Airport (MKE) at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“Airbus is pleased to bring the next generation of commercial aircraft technology, performance, and comfort to Oshkosh this year, giving the public its first viewing of the A350 in North America,” said Barry Eccleston, president of Airbus Americas.

“This builds on our tradition of showcasing aircraft with the aviation community at AirVenture that has included memorable appearances by our Beluga in 2003 and the Airbus A380 in 2009.”

All pictures. Source: Airbus.

Based on the press release “Airbus A350 XWB, Perlan Mission II Glider to Appear at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015”

A350 FAL increases the speed & reduces the cycle.

Airbus is poised to increase assembly of its latest A350 model after getting off to a deliberately slow start to curb risks, the head of Airbus programmes, Didier Evrard, said.

After delivering 1 aircraft in December and another 2 in the first quarter, Airbus is ready to pick up the pace by delivering about 5 between now and August, leaving 8 more to complete to reach a target of 15 for the whole of 2015.

Currently, the A350 assembly plant is running at different speeds as it adjusts to building the new carbon-composite jet.

The supply chain is already at 4 or 5 aircraft a month.

Enough parts are entering the assembly line to make 3 aircraft a month, but deliveries are much slower.

This reflects the normal process for adapting to a new product, but also a deliberate strategy to take the time needed to weed out risk, said Evrard in an interview.

"We are running quite fast at the entrance to the Final Assembly Line (FAL) but the production cycles inside the FAL are still quite slow," Evrard said.

"So we are going to both increase the speed and reduce the cycle. In this way, aircraft will be leaving the FAL at a rate which is closer and closer to the rate at which they enter."

The changes do not reflect an increase in the overall production target, which foresees 10 planes a month by 2018.

Based on the article “Airbus ready to speed A350 assembly to meet targets” published in Reuters.

A350 includes a new Satellite Navigation System for precision landing approaches.

“For the first time on the A350 we have a new system called the Satellite Landing System,” explained Jean-Francois Bousquie, an Airbus flight test engineer focused on avionics.

“This allows pilots to perform precision landing approaches guided by EGNOS (or its US equivalent WAAS), offering vertical guidance down to a minimum of 60 m before the pilot sights the ground to make the go/no-go decision on the final landing descent.”

The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System, or EGNOS, can provide horizontal and vertical guidance to anywhere in Europe, without the need for any additional airport-hosted infrastructure.

The largest international airports use Instrument Landing System (ILS) infrastructure, with radio beams offering a truly precision landing capability, including the ability to ‘autoland’ when visibility is at its worst.

Even with larger airports, in many cases only their busiest runways are equipped with ILS, because it is expensive to install and maintain.

So EGNOS offers a cost-effective way of safely increasing use of remaining runways, boosting the flexibility of any given airport.

“By reducing the value of the ‘minima’ – the lowest safely guided altitude – for non-ILSrunways, EGNOS increases the efficiency and safety of aircraft landings,” added Mr Bousquie.

“Every qualified commercial airline pilot has been trained on ILS, to follow its radio beam. So theSatellite Landing System works by having them follow the same type of cues as much as possible on a ILS ‘lookalike’ basis, employing all available navigation data including EGNOS.”

A pair of onboard Multi Mode Receivers manage the A350’s radio sensors, compute the deviations and ensure interface with display and guidance systems.

All pictures. Source: pst1.pixnet.net

Based on the article “New Airbus A350 comes EGNOS-capable” published in spacenewsfeed.co.uk

China Airlines will start A350 flights to Europe in 2016.

China Airlines will start receiving the first 4 A350s in the end of 2016.

In 2017 there are planned 6 more deliveries and last 8 aircraft in 2018.

The first planned routes will join Taipei-Taoyuan airport with Amsterdam-Schiphol (via Bangkok), Vienna and Rome-Fiumicino (via Delhi).

China Airlines has also planned a route between also Taipei and Vancouver with their A350-900s that will be configured in 3-class interior with 306 seats.

 All pictures. Source: pst1.pixnet.net

Based on the article “China Airlines scheduled A350 deliveries, starting Q3 2016” published in Talkairlines.